- Increasing
electric vehicle adoption driving demand for battery grade cobalt
- Multi-project,
vertically integrated pure-play cobalt company
- Added
two more drill rigs at Iron Creek Project in Idaho
- Second
cobalt mineralization trend identified at Cobalt Camp in Canada
Recent developments indicate that First Cobalt Corp. (TSX.V:
FCC) (OTCQX: FTSSF) appears to be having its cake and eating it too. In quick
succession, the company announced, first, that it had identified a second
cobalt mineralization trend in the Kerr Area of Cobalt Camp, Canada, and, then,
that it had intensified exploration activities at its Iron Creek Project in
Idaho, USA, by adding two more drill rigs. Together, these two announcements
show that the company is cementing its position as a multi-project cobalt
exploration company.
Demand for cobalt continues to rise as global adoption of
electric vehicles (EVs) spreads; the metal is used in a variety of battery
technologies. First Cobalt Corp., with headquarters in Canada, is a vertically
integrated North American pure-play cobalt company with three significant North
American assets: its Iron Creek Project in Idaho, which has a historic mineral
resource estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101); the Canadian Cobalt Camp,
with more than 50 past producing mines; and the only permitted cobalt refinery
in North America capable of producing battery materials.
Cobalt is used extensively in lithium battery technologies
as a cathode material. It comprises about 10 percent of
lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum-oxide (NCA) batteries, 15 percent of
lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide batteries (NMC) and 55 percent of
lithium-cobalt-oxide (LCO), according to Statista (http://ibn.fm/T22VN), and at least an additional 90,000
metric tons of the metal will be needed by 2025 to meet demand, according to
Reuters, citing a report by Swiss bank UBS (http://ibn.fm/Lmnk0).
The bank has based its forecast on expectations that EV
penetration will grow to 16 percent globally, up from about one percent
currently. As a result, First Cobalt’s identification of a second cobalt
mineralization trend within the Kerr area is timely and raises the prospect of
cobalt supplies nearer home. The Kerr mineralization is, fortuitously, near
surface, extending over a 500-meter strike length. It is located parallel to
and 400 meters north of the previously identified Kerr #2 Zone, which has been
traced over 350 meters to date (http://ibn.fm/hSXiU).
Even closer to domestic industries is First Cobalt’s Iron
Creek Cobalt Project in Idaho, where the company has accelerated exploration
activity with two additional drill rigs (http://ibn.fm/afQrU). A total of 81 holes and over 29,000
meters are planned, primarily from new surface drilling stations constructed
earlier this year. Drilling will test down dip extensions of known cobalt-copper
zones to over 300 meters below surface and test lateral strike over one
kilometer to extend mineralization beyond the current 520 meters. The Iron
Creek Project is located close to the centers of the U.S. automotive industry
in California and Michigan.
First Cobalt’s assets also include a mill and the only
permitted cobalt extraction refinery in North America capable of producing
battery grade material. The First Cobalt Refinery is a hydrometallurgical
cobalt-silver-nickel refinery located approximately five kilometers east of
Cobalt, Ontario. The facility was commissioned in 1996 with a nominal
throughput of 12 metric tons per day. A second autoclave was later added to the
pressure oxidation circuit to double the throughput to 24 metric tons per day,
but the second autoclave was never fully commissioned. The current footprint
includes an empty feed warehouse that once housed a mill. The facility is
located on a 40-acre property that can be expanded to 120 acres with two
settling ponds and an autoclave pond.
First Cobalt is considering utilizing the mill and refining
facilities on surface material at Cobalt Camp, where studies are now underway
on muck pile and waste rock material. The muck pile sampling program was
launched in 2017, while waste rock material and mill residue piles near the
company’s mill are being studied in a separate program. First Cobalt is
assessing whether the mill facility could be relocated and reactivated at the
permitted First Cobalt Refinery Complex to generate early cash flow from the
production of a saleable concentrate. Further processing of the concentrate
into refined battery materials may also be possible.
For more information, visit the company’s website at http://ibn.fm/FTSSF
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